Notes On the Crow-Hidatsa Schism

Abstract

Three lines of evidence bearing on the Crow Hidatsa separation provide different dates for that separation, but dates which are consistent with the following generalizations: (1) The Crow began to diverge linguistically from the various Hidatsa groups no less than five centuries ago, and perhaps even earlier. (2) The Crow movement onto the North western Plains was accomplished gradually, perhaps by band-by-band movement, rather than as one precipitous migration away from the Hidatsa. (3) Archaeological evidence from sites of the Mandan/ Hidatsa continuum in the Missouri Valley suggest that the Hagen site, at least, probably dates at about A.D. 1675 ? although alternative explanations for related sites suggest that the Crow moved into the Northwestern Plains several centuries earlier. (4) Ethnohistorical data suggest that the Crow separation dates from the mid-1700s. Rather than dating the initial separation of the two groups, the ethnohistor ical data probably reflect the final severing of ties with the Hidatsa ? a separation made final by the adoption of the horse.